Month: September 2006

Due to overindulging at lunchtime and having a huge Turkish feast, I spent the afternoon feeling like a spacehopper so decided not to go to the running club in case I held them up even more than I did last week (although I’m not sure that would be possible). So I just stuck to my 10k schedule and went out for 2.5 miles.

Decided to do one of my old routes that takes me down the market. Was v. strange running that route again after 8 months and not having to stop after 2 minutes 🙂 And running down the market dodging pikeys is easy as it’s slightly downhill.

There was an old lady at the traffic lights who started talking to me. I couldn’t hear a word she was saying due to having my iPod world filter on, so I just nodded and smiled, hoping I was nodding appropriately and she wasn’t telling me that her goldfish had just died or something.

I’m definitely getting quicker. I know your speed’s supposed to improve if you join a running club but I’d have thought you’d have to go more than once before you see an improvement 🙂

So, just a week and four days to train so I can “wipe the floor with Gary” (Bernard’s words, not mine. Heh heh, now he’s in trouble) at the 5k. Which also means just a week and four days ’til I can have pizza again. Not that I’m counting or anything. I had to check with Gary today if Turkish pizza counted. He said of course it did. Damn.

Stats:
Miles: 2.5
Total time: 25:34
Average pace: 10:12 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.9mph
Max speed: 7.4mph
Total calories: 214
Weather: 77F
Old ladies holding me up talking about f**k knows what: 1
Days without pizza and chocolate: 19
Music:
Bobby Conn – In The Creamfields
Ween – Mutilated Lips
The Libertines – Begging
Kula Shaker – Temple of Everlasting Light
Catatonia – Dazed, Beautiful and Bruised
Transvision Vamp – Andy Warhol’s Dead
The Farmers Boys – In The Country

Well, I’m not hungover in a major way as I was practically tee total last night. In a I would have been tee total if I hadn’t had anything to drink kind of way. But much to Bernard’s surprise, I only had lime and soda (note the missing vodka bit) in the Fox which probably wasn’t a good idea as I think a drink might have lessened the pain a bit although what with the half an hour wait to get served, there would have been a good chance of sobering up in between drinks anyway.

But my steely resolve not to drink got less steely by the time we got to the next pub and I had some vodka. Yum. Even more yum was the wine in the next pub. And if I hadn’t got bored rigid by the people Gary had started talking to and completely ignoring me in the process I would have stayed and drunk more so it was probably just as well I headed for home. Although if I had stayed longer, I wouldn’t have met the strange man on the train. What an idiot. Why do I always end up meeting nutters when I leave the pub early? I’ll just have to stay in the pub longer next time, shame 🙂

So after my relatively moderate night I got up early and went for a run. I would have gone out earlier if I hadn’t got waylaid by my very nice but very chatty neighbour. I had checked to see if the coast was clear to put my Garmin outside to get a signal but she must have been hiding in the bushes to ambush me as there she was and we had a pleasant half hour chat about sparrows and starlings and a woman who apparently goes to Sainsburys and buys four loaves of bread and some scones purely to feed the birds with and if she has too much money then she should give it to charity and not feed the birds as they’re vermin and get in her attic and make noise and keep her awake and her son has to get up at 1 in the morning and get rid of them. If I was her, I’d be more worried about her middle aged son still living with her than a woman who feeds the birdies. It’s not right for men over 20 to be living with their mums. Says me.

Anyway, I had a good run and it would look like I’m going to reach my target of under 35 minutes for the 5k. Yes, it’s slow, but I don’t do fast 🙂

Oops, nearly forgot, good luck for tomorrow joggerblogger! He’s doing a half marathon tomorrow. Bernard reckons I won’t be able to do one this time next year. Right, I’ll show him. But as Gary pointed out, Bernard is negative about everything. This is a man who was panicking about missing the train in Brighton. Although we were sitting in a pub opposite the station and had 30 minutes left. Not the carefree devil may care attitude one would expect from a rock fan.

Stats:
Miles: 3.13
Total time: 33:33
Average pace: 10:43 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.6mph
Max speed: 7.4mph
Total calories: 292
Weather: 69F
Neighbours holding me up for half an hour talking about sparrows: 1
Cows: 4
Days without pizza and chocolate: 16
Music:
Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
Dirty Pretty Things – Puffin’ On A Coffin Nail
Rolling Stones – Time Is On My Side
Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen
Bobby Conn – 69 Annee Erotique
Sex Pistols – No Feelings
Nirvana – Polly
Yesterday’s oddest search engine query to arrive at this blog
Chavs getting arrested

Aarrgghh, Tracey emailed me this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go for a drink after work but I had my serious training head on and declined, citing serious training head on reasons and not wanting to mess up my new serious training schedule type thing in its first week. I then obviously spent the rest of the afternoon wanting to go for a drink, but I was strong and I resisted. I think I must be getting old or something.

My resistance paid off too, as I went for a two mile run this evening and took on board what one of the women from the running club said about tweaking my running and pushing myself a bit further (yes, sometimes I do listen to what people say. Not often though, heh heh) and so I went a bit faster than usual and managed to shave about a minute per mile off my pace. Woo, go me!

Tomorrow’s serious training schedule type thing is to go to the pub. It doesn’t actually say that but it will when I cross out the word “rest” and write “pub” in it’s place for the next 8 Fridays 🙂 But it is very important to go to the pub tomorrow as the Intrepid Fox in Soho is shutting down and as anyone with any knowledge of the rock scene will know, that is the end of an era. Probably the biggest end of an era since, um, the last big end of an era.

So if I’m hungover in a major way and don’t run before Sunday and therefore don’t blog – joggerblogger, have a great half-marathon on Sunday and good luck!

Which reminds me, Gary said I should do a half-marathon so I said, no it’s too far, and he said but you’ve gone from 50 yards to 5 miles in eight months so it’s not out of the question, so I said oh, ok then, this time next year I’ll do a half-marathon. Why do I keep letting myself get talked into these things? Sigh.

Stats:
Miles: 2.15
Total time: 22:26
Average pace: 10:26 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.7mph
Max speed: 9.1mph
Total calories: 189
Weather: 69F
Invitations to the pub turned down: 1
Days without pizza and chocolate: 14
Music:
Pixies – Debaser
Scissor Sisters – The Skins
The Rolling Stones – As Tears Go By
Bobby Conn – Maria B
Pixies – Holiday Song
Primal Scream – Higher Than the Sun

I went to a running club tonight and what a friendly bunch of people they were! Although they were also a complete bunch of sadists and made me run 4 miles at a faster pace than I’m used to. They were right to push me though as, left to my own devices, I reckon tonight I’d have probably shuffled a mile or so then given up and gone home.

They didn’t even mind that although I was going faster than I usually go, I was still the slowest. The 70+ year old man who had looped back to come and run back with me (thank you Tom) said his wife was as slow as me. I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make me feel better? Wonder if I’ll be doing 20 minute 5ks when I’m his age? Yeah, right.

Anyway, I was v. pleased with my 4 mile run and shall be going back next Tuesday although it has completely messed up my schedule which only started yesterday. Today’s run was supposed to be 2.5 miles. Oh well.

Also my “no drinking ’til after the 10k” which soon turned into “no drinking until after the 5k” tonight turned into “yay I went to a running club and ran 4 miles so I think I deserve a glass of wine”, so I went home via the offy. I haven’t had a drink for a week (yes, that’s a whole 7 days, eek!) and I can tell you this wine tastes sooooooooooooooooo nice 🙂 Yum yum.

Stats:
No stats as I didn’t wear my Garmin but I went 4 miles and it’s been 12 days since I had a pizza or any chocolate (or crisps for that matter, even though crisps weren’t part of the bet).

Oddest search engine query of the day:
2 asian girls and octopus

I was trying to avoid the shops on the way home last night but had to get cat food and my local shop that used to not sell alcohol now sells it and I’d said to myself that I wasn’t going to drink last night even though it was Friday and on Fridays beer o’clock officially starts at 5pm so I had to shut my eyes walking past the wine on the way to the cat food and just as I thought it was all over, there were the chocolate bars at the till. Waaaaaaaaaaa. I was strong though and went home with only my purchase of cat food. Yay, go me.

But all was not lost as, when I got home, I remembered that I’d brought back a Soreen malt loaf with me (the handy ones already sliced with butter on them, yum) that I hadn’t eaten at work. Mmm, sweety goodness after all, hurrah!

So it just goes to show that I can run on a diet that doesn’t include pizza, alcohol and chocolate as this morning I did 3.3 miles with no walking breaks. Woo.

I decided to do my route backwards this morning, which doesn’t mean I ran backwards (although I might try that one day when I get really bored or hungover enough not to care if I look like a complete twat) but I ran the route in reverse. Well, you know what they say, variety is the spice of life and change is as good as a rest. So obviously now after running over 3 miles, I feel really rested. Yeah, right. And as for feeling like my life has now been spiced up, well I don’t really think I’m that sad that a backwards route is going to spice up my life. Not much, anyway.

I think I must be a bit sad though, or at least a bit mad as, now that I’m home, it’s started to rain and I’m thinking “bugger, why didn’t it rain when I was out?”.

I saw a bunny when I was out. Aaaawwwwww 🙂 And all four cows are still there. I’m keeping my eye on them to make sure there are none missing. I’ve got quite attached to them now.

There was also a strange man who I followed over the footbridge. Not followed as in a I’m a stalker kind of way (and if I was a stalker, I certainly wouldn’t be stalking old men with bald patches [note to men – if you’re going bald, shave your head, looks better than a bald patch, honest]), but I’d got to the footbridge and had to get over it to go home. I don’t trust men over the marshes on their own without dogs. He didn’t murder me though, so that was handy as that would really have buggered up my training.

As of next week, I’m in training for a 10k at the end of October. It’s on a Sunday morning. Oh. Shit. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t drink on a Saturday night. Not sure when I last saw a Sunday morning either. What have I done?

Stats:
Miles: 3.3
Total time: 36:53
Average pace: 11:11 minute/mile
Average speed: 5.3mph
Max speed: 6.8mph
Total calories: 268
Weather: 66F
Bunnies: 1
Cows: 4
Strange men without dogs: 1
Days without pizza and chocolate: 9
Music:
Gary Numan – I Die : You Die
Pixies – Gouge Away
Garbage – Wicked Ways
The Cranberries – Salvation
Morcheeba – Alice Russell – Someday Blindside
Abba – Dancing Queen
Boomtown Rats
Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Baby Teeth – End of Actress
The Electric Soft Parade – Biting the Soles of my Feet